I did not know Scotchguard™ was so popular there.

Hey Sharif, what's in that other big camera bag you carry around?

Don't look! It's uh, equipment. Very specialized. Yes, soft, squishy, and very light photography equipment. Hands off!

You know, this can be a really big story, as part of the "staging" of photos. It's amazing, as you say, how they're dust-free, and not only that, they're always placed gently on TOP of the rubble, never inside it.

Oh my. My kids have that same tiger doll in the Sharif Karim pic. I was wondering where it got to the other day.

This stuff has me thinking that the effect of pointing out this theater will, in Darwinian fashion, only result in better faked photos and arranged tableaus. I can almost see the future workshops in the Bekaa Valley, where MSM stringers will take Photoshop 201 and Stuffed Toy Arrangement advanced placement classes.

mickey looks unscathed except that one foot is turned backwards. was it turned backwards by the kid who supposedly owned it or by the photographer as a pre-photoshop enhancement?

This is getting really, truly sad, on the part of the media. You would think that they would have gotten a clue after Dan Rather, but no, they have to continue on and on.

Too bad the tiger wasn't real. Then we would have had a really great story. "Tiger kills photographer in Lebanon. Editor blames Bush."

I was not aware Arab children were allowed to play with sybols of Western corruption. I mean you can see up Minnie's dress for gosh sakes!

Haywood's leg was turned that way once. It looks intentional.

Oh the horror. It looks like three of the houses in our neighborhood. Damn kids need to pick up their things.

The Drive By Media is becoming a running joke. From the ridiculous Rathergate forgeries to the multiple hoaxes being perpetrated by esteemed "journalists" in Lebanon, their profession is really beginning to give off interesting odors.

Back in my college days in Florida we could pick up Radio Moscow out of Havanna late at night. We'd listen for a laugh at the outrageous ways they'd stretch the truth or lie outright. But that was the Soviet Union, for Pete's sake.

My bet is that Mohamed Azakir (Reuters) really did stumble into the bottom image and thought it was soooooo cooooool that he needed a few more.

Not to be picky...just doing due diligence. How can I confirm that the pictures that you postd were actual taken by the photgraphers that you mention?

Thanks

GRU

Notice in the last photograph how everything is the same color because it is coated with a layer of concrete dust. Everything except the child items that appear to have been tossed into the rubble after the event ... because they are the only items that AREN'T covered by that concrete dust. I do see a very light coating on some of the items which might have been blown onto the items from the local breeze, but it is absolutely clear that these items were not in that location when the building fell.

Don't forget the Miracle of the Blue Binky that somehow had not a speck of dust on it, despite hanging from the shirt of a corpse completely BATHED in the stuff.

Where is Piglet?

From New Yrok Newsday's cover

GRU, see e.g.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060728/ids_photos_wl/r3577351291.jpg

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060726/ids_photos_wl/r1891896384.jpg

There must be some strange force at work here. After all, the toys in question do appear to be able to hop on top of rather profuse rubble whilst explosions are taking place, and they appear to have the ability to dust themselves off after the dust has settled.

It's Toy Story Meets Hizballah!

STONE WAS WRONG!

It's not innocence, The saying goes,

"THAT THE FIRST CASUALTY OF WAR IS THE(TRUTH!)"

Maybe this site should fund a photographer to take pictures of the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon?

Oh wait, who wants to go to lebanon and get blown to smithereens?

Coming soon.
Daisy Duck Does Damascus
Full Metal Goofy
The 12 Mickies
Winnie The Pooh and the Temple of Doom
Crouching Tigger, Hidden Dumbo

why the teddy and female miceky... (i think her name is mini).. so neat without dust?

slu,

I can't believe you missed the obvious.

Sharif Karim, Issam Kobeisi, Mohamed Azakir, these are all just pseudonyms for Santa Claus!

He's passing out toys in Lebanon to bring joy to the poor and depressed rubble of teh war.

Re Heywood J.

In my humble opinion, we're paying for the worthless paper degrees our universities have been handing out for the last thirty years. Perhaps Bloom's "Closing of the American Mind" should be reprinted. Too bad the logic would be far beyond most journalists.

Why is it always only one toy? That's why the last one at least looks semi-authentic. Most kids, yes, even poor downtrodden lebanese, have toy boxes, or baskets, or piles, or whatever. You should expect to see pieces and parts of Barney, or Barbie, coloring books, chunks of plastic from a shattered E-Z-Bake oven, etc.

One, lone stuffed toy is so incongruous as to scream "SETUP!"

These are some very durable toys. Great advertisements for the toy companies.

Remember that Snuggle fabric softener bear with the high pitched giggle? I'd pay to see that bag of cotton balls hellfired...

What I don't get is how NO journalist has investigated these multiple deceptions.

A bunch of guys blogging in their pajamas are more thorough than the editors who are payed to catch this stuff.

It'd be laughable if so much weren't at stake.

Everyone has had to see this staged AP photo of Cindy Sheehan in an intimate, tender moment with Al Sharpton kneeling infront of her son's grave...surrounded by a phalanx of photograpers:

http://blogs.newsobserver.com/editor/index.php?title=two_takes_on_sharpton_photo&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

What a sad commentary on the state of the world today, that anyone would believe these pictures are anything other than an attempt to manipulate emotions.

One, all by itself, is almost believable. But no one seeing these pictures laid out in this manner could believe its anything other than a farce.

Excellent work.

Good job, Slu. Thanks to you and the other bloggers who are on this we might be turning the tide in the propaganda war.

IMO, the last pic is another setup. Everything in that picture has a thick layer of soot on it except the childrens' toys. If that's the real outcome, why aren't those toys also covered in the same dark soot?

PROPOGANDA!

oops...typo.. propaganda!

Here's another one --- obviously staged.

Jerome Sessini photograph in Qana

I linked from Old War Dogs >> I guess I was tired

What these outlets seem to have a hard time with is telling the difference between news and art. News is a reflection of a reality outside of the normal view of people so they may see beyond the horizon. Art is the creation of a reality be it for a message or a feeling or just because it looks neat.

Those photo archives would be better named "gallery" rather than "archive". Now I don't mind art, as long as it isn't foisted off on people as reality and is clearly labeled as such.

Notice that in the caption of that Jerome Sessini fauxtograph, they're still claiming that 50 civillians and 30 kids were "massacred" in Qana.

Truth, unadulterated...

Great catch, Slu!

Be on the lookout for new images of carefully distressed toys entwined realistically in the rubble...

Stupid like Charles finding the doctored pictures.

Check out Kos to see them bust out Joe today.

"Oh, my God! They killed Mickey! You bastards!"

This photographers are our enemies! They have been manipulating us all, trying to make us implode, self-distruct. Are they living in the West?

At this point, it seems only reasonable to assume that anything coming from Reuters is fake unless proven otherwise.

If the definition of negligence is ignoring evidence and plowing ahead stupidly anyway, then isn't every news outlet using Reuters photos guilty of negligence?

Unless of course they put a disclaimer beneath every photo: "This website makes no claims to the truthfellness or accuracy of these photos"

You know, a Standard Fauxtography Disclaimer.

Apparently the market doesn't care. Reuters was up (!) .05% today. http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=RTRSY Of course, that could just be an oil money blip. Don't the Saudis hold a huge stake in Reuters?

The fact is that such toys are Haraam in Islam. See this for instance.

Dolls can be given to children if "the head is removed". What a joyful society.

Fakes, the lot of them.....

This lyric really applies:

"It's just that things don't fit/
this isn't what you planned, or is it?"

SOMETHING PRETTY BEAUTIFUL
"Freefall"
Creation Records
1990

Notice also that the "toys" all have that magic color red on them. One of the oldest color photo tricks in the book is to put red clothing, hats etc. on the subject to drew attention to it as the focal point in a photo. Especially in the grey rubble of a war zone. When doing industrial (often monochromatic) photography I carry a case of jackets, scarves, hard hats, and gloves that are mostly red, but also yellow, orange, bright blue, etc.
A photo aphorism is that: "Red in a color photo is like pure black in a B&W photograph to bring the print to life."

When it is done in a comercial photo, i'ts legit- when done to improve a staged propaganda news photo it's not.

It would be really great if the same lawn jockey kept turning up in all the photos.

This lyric really applies:

"It's just that things don't fit/
this isn't what you planned, or is it?"

SOMETHING PRETTY BEAUTIFUL
"Freefall"
Creation Records
1990

IF they would only construct buildings out of the same material used to make stuffed animals, then all the structures would survive intact -- and wouldn't even get dirty or dusty.

To play a little devil's advocate here -- really to my eye only Minnie Mouse looks suspiciously pristine. But in the end, what does it really matter? Who really knows what's staged and what isn't? This is just another part of "modern warfare", the PR front. It's either faked or it's not, you either believe it or you don't. There's no such thing as objectivity -- why expect to find it here (i.e. a war in the mideast) of all places?

A toy is seen in Beirut suburbs, after it was targeted by Israeli air strikes in southern Beirut July 21, 2006. REUTERS/Sharif Karim (LEBANON)

Is it just me or does that seem to say that the TOY was trageted by Israeli air strikes?

Two observations:

Man, Israel really hates toy tigers!

Those toys are indestructible!

If you look carefully at the Jerome Sessini photo you will see a large rock sticking out on the right from where it was carefully placed behind the photo and the obvious two smaller ones placed at the bottom -- all in an blatant attmept to make the photo stand out for the camera.

Honestly, I don't expect to find objectivity when two sides are trying to win a war. What bothers me about this is the media's willingness to play the propaganda game.

It seems there's no credulity or attempt at fact-checking. If the media put a disclaimer on these pictures by saying that Hezbollah has been known to engage in propaganda, that would be a start.

But we're expected to take these at face value, which is upsetting.

It is obvious to the casual observer that someone deliberately put those toys there in a few of these pics. Anybody that ever watched Sesame Street as a child knows the song "one of these things is not the same, one of these things does not belong". Play that game with these pics. I'll give you a hint: dust.

/I just qualified for AP photo editor! yay!

C'mon Jimbeaux - how could you be so close and miss it?

Too late - I'll do it:

"It's these cans! They must really hate these cans!"

Yeah, I'd agree the Sessini photo definitely looks staged -- the dogeared snapshot is positioned a little too perfectly.

The ghost of Johnny Cochran sez:

"If the toys don't fit, you must aquit!"

Those nasty terrorists, hiding behind Minnie Mouse. How low can they go?

I thought mice were banned for muslims. Tom & Jerry can't be aired because Jerry is a mouse which is a clever ploy by the Jews to show that they are smart. Maybe this was a Christian neighborhood? Naa...they wouldn't have even bothered showing it. And for all the toys around, where are the dead bodies and blood? hmmm...makes me wonder.

That poor Mickey Mouse in the 1st photo looks like he's suffering from rigor mortis, like the Qana "victims".
Oh! The humanity!

Slublog,

I agree with you that the media are often guilty of laziness and let themselves "get played" in these situations. When it comes to pictures like this though, what would constitute fact-checking? Maybe if two independent photographers shot approximately the same scene? It's tricky territory. Though I admit, the more I look at all these pics, the less legit they appear -- and you'd expect that a professional photo editor would (or at least should!) have an even more skeptical eye...

So this discounts what the Israelis are doing? This makes it all okay since you think you've found some photos of childrens' toys placed by someone?

You guys are weak and sick.

How can we know what Israel is doing if the media won't tell us the truth about what's going on in that region?

The issue here is that the coverage is influencing the perception some have of Israel, although I doubt your opinion of that country was particularly good to begin with. Such fabrication goes against journalistic ethics, and when it happens, it should be pointed out and criticized.

For years, journalists have been telling people that sunshine is the best disinfectant for government. It's now time to see if that goes for journalism as well.

All these bright toys among the gray rubble remind me of the little girl in RED in the black and white movie "Schindler's List"

To mendacity and beyond!

I know what Israel is doing and I know what they are not doing. What they are doing is fighting for survival. Defending themselves against terrorists.

What they are not doing is using the media to make them look "better". They are better, they know it and anyone paying attention for the last several decades knows it too. The terrorists on the other hand know the only way they can win is to manipulate the media to get sympathy from folks who only look at the pictures and never bother to look further.

Unfortunately, many people are falling for it.

The utter stupidity of you right wingers never ceases to amaze me. These photos were obviously taken when the Zionist Aggressors bombed the Beirut FAO Schwartz.

Open your eyes.

"I know what Israel is doing and I know what they are not doing. What they are doing is fighting for survival."

Yeah right.

300 dead Lebanese civilians to 3 dead Israelis REALLY looks like a "fight for survival."

You're full of it.

300 dead Lebanese civilians to 3 dead Israelis REALLY looks like a "fight for survival."

Behold...the effects of propaganda.

I guess you've never heard of Syria or Iran. Sadly, they are willing to stand behind the scenes, for now and let Lebanon take the brunt of the war. But as for Lebanon, if you lie down with dogs, you'll wake up with fleas. The U.N. has been there, the Lebanese government knows Hezbollah is there and piling up weapons, and they did nothing. After all, Hezbollah wasn't going to use those weapons against the U.N. or the Lebanese. (Of course they have no problem using them as human shields. If you don't realize that than I think you're full of it, too.)

The U.N. and the Lebanese government were perfectly willing to stand by and let Hezbollah pile up these weapons to use against Israel. I hate to see civilians die, I truly do. But the blame goes to Hezbollah, not Israel.

And a cease fire at this point would only be an opportunity for Hezbollah to re-arm. Their goal is to destroy Israel, all the Jews. Or haven't you heard?

Sorry, that last comment of mine was far too glib.

I apologize.

Seriously, though - three dead Israelis? Where are you getting your information?

"300 dead Lebanese civilians to 3 dead Israelis REALLY looks like a 'fight for survival.'"

First of all, where are you getting your numbers? How do you know all those "civilians" were really civilians? Hezbollah is a terrorist organization and dresses like civilians - will you even admit that? And are you really so naive as to believe that war can be won without unintentional casualties? Especially when the terrorists use civilians as HUMAN SHIELDS? What do you want Israel to do then: Sit back while terrorists purposefully try to kill civilians because if they strike back they might accidentally kill Lebanese civilians?

Here you are attacking Israel for defending its people, but what's your solution? Just let them do it? Oh, I'm sure if we talk to them long enough they'll decide NOT to follow through with their well-documented and oft-repeated goal of the utter annihilation of Israel!

As for "Liberal Larry" - you are clearly an anti-Semite, and I don't say that often, so don't give me the line about "all critics of Israel are labeled anti-Semites." You have clearly identified yourself as deserving that label with your "Zionist aggressors" garbage.

My kids toys look dirtier than that and the only fighting they've ever seen was between two seven year olds with juice boxes.

I think Liberal Larry runs a satire site, and his comments should be taken in that spirit.

If that's true, then I apologize to Larry.. But I must say that the fact that I immediately saw it as a possible true opinion of a liberal is very telling. There are many that would believe exactly that.

All too true.

A week back I noticed a series of photos from the Israel war that showed pictures sitting on top of the rubble. First it was one, dustless, B&W photo of grandma. Another photo had four on top of the rubble, all face up, all dustless (as I recall) and all oriented the same direction.

Anyone else notice this?

Misrepresenting reality with Photoshop is bad. REALLY bad. "Staging" the scene is different, IMO. Mathew Brady, our famous Civil War photographer, often moved dead bodies around to get the best picture. Slightly moving a toy to get the best angle doesn't smack me as propagandizing:

"It was very common that photographers moved bodies around with the purpose to get a better picture. In this case there is only one evidence that O'Sullivan might has done this. The fact that only one face can be seen, is not very likely on a battle field with so many dead soldiers. O'Sullivan probably turned the faces of the others away but left the bodies where they were killed."

- American Photography

Maybe, but staging is not allowed under Reuters' own guidelines - linked above.

Slublog, I didn't find a link to Reuters' guidelines on your blog. I went to Reuters and looked at their guidelines. Here's a link. It basically covers Photoshop alterations like flipping images, but I don't see anything about staging pictures. Can you give me a direct link?

Obviously we can stop donating toys to charities assisting those in the war zone. Toys appear to be stronger than wooden furniture or metal.

I agree that most of these photos look very staged but what is also compelling is that although the photos were taken by different photographers, they all were taken with the same composition style. (i.e. toy in the up-close foreground...bomb rubble in the background) Do you think that maybe all these photographers went to the same 'school' of photojournalism?

Also, what do you think the odds are that the tiger ended up 'landing' in a perfect 'life-like' and upright 'pose'/position?

Here's the link to their standards.

I think staging a photo is covered under "Beyond the obvious, such as the cardinal sin of plagiarism, the dishonesty of fabrication or the immorality of bribe-taking, journalism is a profession that has to be governed by ethical guiding principles rather than by rigid rules."

Staging a photo is just another way of saying you fabricated the image to suit the story you want to tell. News photos should be of what happened, not what the photographer thinks should represent what happened.

Basically, I do not believe the ethics of 1860s journalism should guide today's reporters.

The Hizballah propaganda machine with the cooperation of the MSM is in high gear. Sergei Eisenstein and Leni Riefenstahl could not have done any better.

Don't kid yourselves. A lot of Lebanese civilians are dying. Israel directs heavy firepower at its designated targets and not all ordinance is precision guided: since Hezbollah entrenches itself in urban as well as rural areas, with margins of error from anywheres of a few to 50 meters: well do the math. And a lot more than 3 Israeli cvilians have died too whereever that post was coming from. The neat touch is Hezbollah goes directly for the anti-personal fragmentation effect, filling the warheads of its flachettes with fins up with nails, glass, and ball bearings.

Just one of those ball bearings can punch a 50-cent hole in a concrete wall. Now imagine your body upon impact.

How come we never see the toy guns Arab kids are always holding up to the cameras -- in times of relative peace yet... [???]

There was a Channel 4 sitcom about a TV station called Drop the Dead Donkey (UK) about 15 years ago on which one of the reporters used to do exactly this. Take his own teddy bear to warzones and drop it into each and every one of his outside broadcasts. It was extemely funny at the time but somehow now it takes on a darker tone.

The Hezzies should have caught on by now: The IDF is bombing stuffed toys.

Don't hang out around Tigger or Mickey!

what a bunch of dirtbags, the propaganda is not working, perhaps you can trick the french?

IF they would only construct buildings out of the same material used to make stuffed animals, then all the structures would survive intact -- and wouldn't even get dirty or dusty.

Ah yes, the black box theory.

These photos reminds me of that scene in Schindler's List where one girl has a red dress.

I don't really blame Hezbollah for using whatever media manipulation they might have at their disposal, though of course I don't support them. As to riffraff's comment that the Israelis don't use the media to make themselves look good, sometimes I almost wish they WOULD. As a person who doesn't follow the mideast that closely, I would imagine I'm like perhaps a majority of Americans who are sympathetic to Israel's side but often find themselves cringing at what at least appears to be overkill or lack of restraint, using force reflexively without foreseeing the consequences. You could say the Israelis don't play the PR side of the war out of some high-minded principle, but, again to a relatively casual observer, it's almost seems as if they're oblivious that this part of the war exists -- or at least to the fact that world opinion, whether based on fact or deceptive press coverage, can come back around to have a real effect (is there a word in Hebrew for "blowback"?). It just seems to me it's in Israel's best interest to at least learn to play the PR game a little better. Not that it will make any difference -- that part of the world's been going to hell as long as I've been alive, I don't expect it to change much, unless you count accelerating towards that destination.

TOYS'R'US in action

The zionist entity are obviously targeting toys.

The zionist entity are obviously targeting toys.

Clearly, none of you have any idea of what the effects of a blast wave.

The pictures presented simply can not serve as proof positive of EITHER claim.

TO make it simple, they COULD have been staged, and they COULD be an actual result of a blast wave.

Look it up first, then try to pass your "opinions".

Making assumption with ANY knowledge of involved variables, is just as a simpletons opinion to why the space shuttle blew up, which is entirely based on TV clip.

"The birds did it! That's right, I saw it my self, was big bugger, must be one of them endangered eagles, blah blah blah."

I swear these blogs turn everybody into senile old people that blab all day and talk to telephone pols.

It's clear that Mickey suffered through a horrific explosion. Look how swollen his hands and feet are.

I'm surprized that Travelocity's Roaming Gnome isn't in every shot.

First they came for the stuffed animals, and I did not speak out..

Notice how no little girls left behind their "Jihad Barbie" or "Gee-had Joe" dolls. Some toys are not important enough to be taken with you when the Hezbos need cover. Sure, leave the Mick behind...leaving him to taste his own salty mouse tears.

The caption below Mickey should say: "My foot hurts THIS much!" Sorry, couldn't help myself, since this situation is so silly. GO ISRAEL! Go terminator style on them...don't stop until they are dead.

This comment is in response to previous comments about what Israel is reacting on Lebanon:

The problem with the way Israel is doing the war is not that it isn't justified. It is justified, more than justified in fact. The problem is that a conventional war against a country or a city to kill terrorists don't work.

In a conventional war aggression usually stops as soon as one side has done so much damage to the other that the other surrenders and both sides, winner and loser, send out orders to their respective forces to stop all action. Now, since when you fight a terrorist organization neither of the two governments has any control on it, you beating down the one from the place the terrorists merely live in has no effect. That government can send as much orders as you which and the effect will be zero, nil, nothing, nada. Worse: once the government is beaten, and thus public services get disrupted, the terrorist might start providing for the well being of the people, and end up getting stronger. And not only this, but such a disruption also causes new local armed leaders and warlords to arise, creating even more terrorist organizations.

This is what happened in Iraq and is giving so much trouble to the US Army: there are now so many independent groups fighting there that once the americans make peace or destroy one of them, 300 other groups are still fighting against the US forces, and other 100 being organized in places previously pacified.

So, the most probable outcome of the Israel war in Lebanon will be that the lebanese government ceases to exist and Israel ends up having to fight not "the" Hezbollah, but Hezbollah, Neo-Hezbollah, Hezbollah-2, Hamas Friends of Hezbollah, Hamas Friends of Neo-Hezbollah, True-Hezbollah, Truely-True-Hezbollah, Anti-Hezzbolah Alliance (but still anti-Israel), Anti-Hezzbolah Alliance-Defectors, Hezzbolah-3, and so on and so forth. Add to this the fact that terrorists by their own nature don't regard national borders at all ("We don't need no stinking Nations!") and you see the problem...

A good author on the subject, William S. Lind, has a ton of articles dealing with it. Give it a try:

http://www.lewrockwell.com/lind/lind-arch.html

Many things come to mind about the latest shenanigans of the left wing Bush wacking, America hating "third estate". One I look at in my car each day, "Objects in the mirror are closer than they look", the other is "Things are not what they seem". Is anyone suprised, the media has been making it ALL up for years, you cannot believe one word or image they portray. They are like rats and cockroaches they scatter when someone turns the lights on.

Its amazing that everyone in Lebanon is into Disney characters. I thought they dont like the western stuff!!!!

To People come & go:

I wouldn't go nearly as far as you do -- there is such as thing as healthy skepticism, but there is also the extreme degree of skepticism bordering on paranoia that is as unhealthy as having no skepticism at all. You honestly don't believe one word or image from the media? Does that then mean you DO believe the exact opposite of everything they say?

As I heard someone saying on the radio this morning re: 9/11 conspiracies (and I think the same could be said to apply to many or most "media conspiracies"), for such scenarios to be true would require an awful lot of people, working in a coordinated way, very competently. I find "a lot of people, uncoordinated and incompetent" a much more plausible explanation for a lot of these things -- the failure to prevent 9/11, misleading "sound-bite" journalism, etc.

What, no Tickle Me Elmo?

You know, this is just ripe for photoshop fun. Or maybe these are the product of Hezbollywood photoshop fun and the media considers that "news."

Move along, no children were harmed in the making of this war, nothing to see here. I mean really, who wants to see fake photos of deth and destruction. Show me some real childrens bodies!!
I want to see an actual child dead with it's guts hanging out duty and maroon, where the blanky has soaked up the blood urine and feces. I mean really, if all we get is faked photos of war and death we might as well go watch Platoon.

Has anyone thought of the most base motive - GREED! Most of the guys are in the business of SELLING photos. The more dramatic the shot the better chance it will get picked up and used. I am sure they are biased but the main ingredient is the motivation to get published and pro-terrorist editors are more likely to pickup the kind of photos we have been seeing.

Don't take this the wrong way, I know how touchy the subject can be.

But I think a more interesting story about this whole conflict would be the Jewish response on the internet. The story of the normal every day Jewish person taking up arms in a war of propaganda on the internet.

I've never seen so much nitpicking of anything before in my life until now, and it's interesting.

Wild cross linked stories from one site to another speculating and theorizing about what a photographer may or may not have done, and how it works to their advantage. Ignoring the funny irony that at least they have pictures at all, while these people are trying to fight back with merely speculation and smere tactics.

I need to start a site that links to this site, where I pick apart your analysis of these photographs and call in to question your qualification to even be making those analysis. But, I don't think I will. :)

Has anyone here actually seen a war zone? If not, then how can you possibly have the balls/arrogance to declare whether a picture was faked or not? It smacks of "I don't like, so I'm going to scream at the top of my lungs that it must be fake." Offer some evidence, or shut the hell up.

BTW, People come & go so quickly here!, Beirut was known as the Paris of the East. It was easily the most Westernized city in the Middle East, much moreso than Israel. Your equating the people of Lebanon with fundamentalists in Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia just shows the ignorance so many Americans have concerning the region and the religion. For example, did you even know that not all Arabs hate us and our culture? Did you even know that all Arabs aren't Muslim? Did you even know that the Israelis are bombing parts of Beirut that are heavily Christian neighborhoods?

Bet you didn't.

God Bless the Chosen People of God (TM)!

Times like this when I hate being one of the few truly conservative Republicans, instead of this chicken-hawk neo-con trash.

Oops, I meant to address Mark in that. Sorry "People come & go so quickly here!"

No, jifty, I've never seen a war zone. However, I have seen the aftermath of an explosion, albeit a small one, and having been a reporter/photographer, I know something about both.

Now, if you're going to do nothing more than engage in ad hominem attacks and shout "shut the hell up" to those with whom you disagree, you are free to visit another blog.

(Okay, I'm editing this to add that my comments here came across far snippier than I intended, and I apologize to jifty.)

I want thier toys.

Blood for toys!

Wont the photographers now spread some dust over the toys?

The terrorists have learned well the lessons of the North Vietnamese. Public opinion can crush your enemy's will to fight faster than the biggest bomb...cheaper too.

It may be just me, but is the writing on the coloring book in the last "untouched" photo ENGLISH?

Why would there be childrens books written in ENGLISH in 'MUZZIELAND'????

If it isn't English...OOPS!!!
My eyes aren't what they used to be.

One small point:

The western media, especially in the US, don't like showing picture of dead bodies.

So, your a reporter, you want to get a photo that portrays the death, especially of kids, how do you do this without showing dead kids?

Well, you put toys in there. Simple, and relativly reasonable. The point is true, even if the photo isn't. I don't know if you noticed, but in the background of all those photos there were ruined buildings. I think the point that is made by the photos is still valid.

I for one am happy to have a picture of a toy rather than a dead body.

Well, you put toys in there. Simple, and relativly reasonable. The point is true, even if the photo isn't. I don't know if you noticed, but in the background of all those photos there were ruined buildings. I think the point that is made by the photos is still valid.

Fake but accurate? :-)

I am happy not to have photos of dead kids as well, but if the media is going to stage a photo, I think it should be labeled "photo illustration" and not sold to us as a news photo.

Just what do people expect Isreal to do?
Hezbollah's self professed mission is the destruction of Isreal and the eradication of all Jews.
Hezbollah

Anyone remember Flea from the Red Hot Chili Peppers playing bass in the video for "Bust a Move" with Young MC in 1989? In the vid Flea is wearing pants with stuffed dolls sewn to them. Since these got through unscathed, maybe HezzyBullAll can develope some Bomb Proof Britches the same way? This guy is already on the cutting edge of the research: http://www.xmasons.com/stuffed_animal_pants/index.html

Yes Mike I have seen a war zone. It was on West St. in NYC. Not much survived intact from there did it?

I too have seen a war zone, several in fact. Although I will support the fact that many of these are in fact "staged" if not just symbolic representations; the first and the last are likely real.

You would see toys everywhere whenever buildings were destroyed like this. They are made to be indestructible, kid proof. All pants jokes aside, a stuffed or plastic toy seems to survive when the rest of the apartment gets blown to dime sized flakes.

Subsequently, in Yugoslavia back in the early 90s, the militias used to take advantage of this and attach anti personnel mines to the toys. Walking through a street of try rubble and bloody bodies, it's a natural instinct to grab it.

This war is not a war on terror, this is Israel getting "lebensraum".

The Drop Teddy Bear is a legendary trick of crime photogs. Always have a teddy bear in your trunk to drop at the scene of a car accident.

In my newspaper days, it seemed like the dropped shoe was more common. One child's shoe, evoking damage, loss, emptiness.

Anyway, point was to punch up the emotional impact of the photo. So, plus ca change...

AND LET'S NOT FORGET THIS ONE by Hajj

Oh, serendipity! A photographer finds an otherwise clean Koran, buring at 50% several hours after the missile stike. How convenient for him to stage the destruction of the Koran...the ultimate metaphor and a call to arms.

http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20060716/i/r2206122070.jpg>

How are we supposed to know that is a Koran, exactly?

Oh, they're Damien shots. What a surprise.

Damien Day was the fictional newsreporter in Drop the Dead Donkey whose teddy bear had been in more battles than most active-service soldiers.

It appears that Disney is stronger than Hisbola. As a future developing nation, Lebanon should look into investing into a Disney Lebanon Land ©. Israel will kick out (eliminate) terrorists and bring in the tourists.

Remember those set-up photo ops during the Clinton years? The Hillary and Bill kiss on the beach, Bill just happening to find pebbles at a Normandy invasion anniversary and "spontaneously" forming them into a cross without any self-consciousness of the camera crew cranking away as he did it?

You know what would be really cool? What if Hillary was walking along the beach on this 9/11 and a bunch of Legos just happened to wash up. What if she cried as she spontaneously built replicas of the twin towers. God, that would just be about the most heart-wrenchingly true-to-life photo, wouldn't it? About as real as the dustless Mickey photo.

My heart pumps purple peanut butter for the moron journalist who perpetrates these lies. With any luck, he/she will soon be dispatched to hell's gates with a clean shot to the forehead by their beloved Mooselimb extremist "friend".

Majordad: I think you hit the nail on the head. Something photojournalists really, really want is to be on the front page. That's where their pictures will bring them the big money and fame. And even better, their dream-come-true, would be a Pulitzer. So even without propagandizing, there is still a huge temptation to add dramatic effect to their pictures.

Jifty: You ask how anyone can "...possibly have the balls/arrogance to declare whether a picture was faked or not?" Come on now, you can't possibly be that stupid. In these cases the fabrication is so obvious, the only qualification for being able to recognize it is eyesight.

It amazes me that a photojournalist would be foolish enough to try to put one over with such poorly done, obviously faked fauxtos. It's even more amazing that experienced editors at reputable news organizations could be taken in by it. These people are showing themselves to be not too bright. But most mystifying of all is that, even after the fraud has been exposed to all the world, someone like you is arrogant and condescending enough to think you can still get someone to fall for it. I noticed that you didn't say that you yourself believe the pictures are not fake. I think you should wake up and realize that most people are probably smarter than you.

What these fauxtos tell me and every other reasonable person is that charges of brutality and atrocities committed by Isreal are probably lies. If they were true, there would be no need to fabricate images; news photographers would have ample opportunities to photograph actual scenes a hundred times more tragic and dramatic than anything that could be staged. Apparently such scenes are most uncommon and hard to find, or they wouldn't have to make them up. We're supposed to believe that a thousand innocent Lebanese civilians were killed? Based on what? The words of the same people who show us obviously fake pictures?

I have been 'ranting' about MSM collusion with our enemy for months. The typical liberals I encounter believe everything they read in USA Today, Gannett papers and the big three networks. Most of them feel that when the truth is pointed out to them that the truth was 'staged'.

Thus the photaggraphers have a ready, willing and growing audience. Josef Goebbels would have loved the gullability of today's audience. It's especially troubling when so many Jewish people are leaning towards the side of the Hezbollah.

Too bad Adolph Hitler couldn't have waited for today. Had he waited everything he did would be okay. The media would scramble to do his bidding. The images of the infamous concentration camps would be of tree lined streets, flower gardens and happy children and adults. Like Arafat he would be awarded the Nobel prize for peace and be invited to the Whitehouse.

I'm glad Hezbollah parents apparently love to give their children toys from the "Great Satan Disney Corporation"!

Throughout the war, Israel's northern residents did indeed crouch in bomb shelters or flee altogether, as reported by some media.

All of the people I know in Jerusalem took in northern refugees - and they stayed in our homes for several weeks, trying to keep their kids entertained. My friends were watching the news at every opportunity and calling home to check on their parents, who refused to leave Haifa. Sirens, announcing approaching bombs, and the sound of bombs, made every day a living hell. Most people do not have bomb shelters in their buildings and had to run for a shelter every time the sirens went off, which was several times a day. They were living in a kind of fear that you can't know if you haven't been on the frontline of a war.

We suffered a large number of deaths and serious injuries (Israel does NOT like to blare sensational details like 100 civilians missing limbs, but serious injuries are usually something like missing limbs) - not 3/300 as mentioned above. Our civilians were hiding in their homes, not hiding terrorists in their homes. Our civilians were innocents, not human shields.

We don't take pictures like this because we take death seriously. We are mourning our fallen. We are aware that the world is villainizing us and we are aware that they're touting Lebanese Human Shields falsely as innocent victims. Yet we are sitting shiva and don't have time for a media blitz. Death isn't funny - and it shouldn't be sensational.

Muzzieland? gee, all hail to the Nazis on the list. Thank you for my expanded vocabulary as I hadn't heard that one. And to think that poor ol' Jessie Jackson has STILL not been forgiven for Hymietown (too bad he didn't just say he was referring to all the female virgins in NYC)

So someone was on West St at 9/11 and knows all about the powers of destruction, eh? Great, cause I've been wanting to know - how did those passports of the accused-alleged terrorists ever survive the crash, the excruciatingly hi temp fuel burn, etc etc and float down to earth intact AND get found amidst all the rubble?!?!?! Mustafabeen a miracle.

Come on - some of you all are pointing a (very particular) finger like this is a never heard of before use of the media. Don't take this as excusing the use of fauxography, I don't believe what I see or read in the media, whether it's the photos or GWB saying 'our side won, nanahhhhhh'.

Cui bono?

a) for the fauxography

and

b) for the tiresome tirading about the fauxography, esp as tho it were ONLY being done by Lebanese afficionados.

Go get a cup of Starbucks Roach Latte; better yet, get a life and get off the 'net!

Basirah